GUITAR AMP REPAIR & MODS
I offer complete repair, custom gain stage mods and Master Volume mods.
Repairs: I stock a good selection of New, NOS, and tested vintage tubes as well as tube sockets, jacks, switches and common parts to get your rig back to you as soon as possible.
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Mods: About 7 years ago, one of my customers wanted me to install a mod on his JCM 800. After installing a " cap and diode internet mod ", neither one of us had a smile on our faces when it was engaged. So we tried a couple of others without any real "kick-in-the-ass" changes. I said " give me the amp for a month, and I will come up with something that will knock your socks off".
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A month passed and he got the amp back with an extra tube gain stage and a bass shaping control to go from a 70's fuzz to a super lean crunch. After 5 minutes of playing with the extra gain stage kicked in, his first words were " now I can sell my Tube Screamer ".
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The rules.......
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All gain stages are tubes. I give you a choice of popular current tubes and vintage tubes. Vintage tubes are subject to availability.
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Only low noise components are used. That means low noise millitary spec resistors, high quality caps and tube sockets, and electronics grade silver solder.
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No extra holes are punched in the front of the amp if at all possible. If I need to add an extra control, its only because I have exhausted all other options and i always contact you first for premission.
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All modifications are switchable in and out. That means that the original tone of the amp is preserved so its there when you need it.
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MASTER VOLUME MODS
Master volume mods allow you to dial up all the controls to '11' to get ALMOST all the tone you wantand have the amp play quietly.
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Almost ??........A master volume mod allows you to dime the front end of the amp. This means that the small signal tubes ( typically labelled as V1, V2, V3...etc etc ) are at their maximum distortion.
The missing part is that last bit of creamy distortion comes from the power tubes going full blast and any cone break up you are getting from your speakers. Its not there because the output section of the amp is only getting a tiny little signal instead of the whole thing.
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The big advantages are :
This allows you to practice at bedroom levels while maintaining MOST of the tone.
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You AREN'T murdering your output tubes, slamming the whole amp into some kind of resistor network that gets real hot and drops the output of the amp before it gets to the speaker.
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The heat comes from the output tubes doing their job, but you have to remember, tubes get used up much faster when they work hard.